>Isn't this the way the world has worked since the dawn of the first civilizations?

Not really, for most of humanity's history people could barely even figure out what happened on the other side of the mountain or the sea.

The extreme degree of globalisation that carries these policies and attitudes across the globe is pretty new. It wasn't even the case in the 60s or 70s say. It's predominantly online markets that are dominated by individual companies, control used to be significantly more national.